Monday, September 12, 2011

No More DVD Cases

My DVDs take up a lot of space. I have two towers for them and I almost went out for another. As a solution I got this case from DiscGear.

Photo borrowed from discgear.com

It has been wonderful so far and I really suggest it. I store all of my DVDs in the box and the covers in a booklet with a coordinating number to the titles in the box. I logged every title into a spreadsheet and then put them in alphabetical order along with the same coordinating numbers. The website has a template online where you can enter this information, print it out, and put it into the list drawer, but this particular program seems a little too tedious for the moment.

I think the best part of this was looking at all of the DVD cases I had piled up waiting to be recycled. It is shocking when you really get down to it and see how much bulk they added to the room. And then you sit back and realize just how much waste companies create with packaging. Packaging is our #1 waste, and just by clearing out these cases it really puts it into perspective. And that is just the cases that seemed to take up a small part of my room. It is an eyeopener.

A tip I have is to keep a few cases for when you take a couple on a trip, someone borrows some...ect. I find that the real gems are the cases that hold two disks as it takes up the same space as a case that only holds one. You can also make your own cover to slip in that has your name/ family's name on it. The clips inside allow you to slip in a piece of paper if you like. It could contain your contact info in case the DVD(s) gets lost if you so desire. Another gem is Blue-ray disks as they are slim and see-through. Both good choices and both have their pros and cons. Either way, keep a few. They will come in handy more than you think.

Another tip is about all those Special Features disks. I say don't put them in the box. Reason being is because they take up important space. These boxes are a little pricey, so the more slots available the better. A solution to being able to get your cake and eat it too is to store the additional DVD in the literature booklet. The way I did it was slip it between the two pages of the covers so it can not be seen, but you know it is there and safe if you find you need it.